Can RTL8196C be incorporated into the LEDE?
Building LEDE for RTL8196C, LEDE will be more perfect, more beautiful.
http://archive.main.lv/writeup/building_openwrt_for_rtl8196c.html
git clone git://git.advem.lv/openwrt-realtek.git
cd ./openwrt-realtek/
git branch -a
git checkout realtek-unstable
Afaik there's no upstream support whatsoever towards OpenWrt/LEDE, which is why Realtek devices aren't supported.
Realtek inherited a reduced mips ISA via Lexra, given that this differs from the normal mips ISA, it is quite a bit harder to support - especially lacking active (or any-) upstream development.
I've ported RTL8196C support to LEDE, without wireless support.
All source codes (SPI driver/ethernet driver) were written myself.
https://github.com/hackpascal/lede-rtl8196c (with branch realtek)
But I probably have no time to develop it later.
H大好牛！LEDE的RTL8196C都搞成功了！RTL8196C的Breed啥时候出呢？
Great work, hackpascal! What wireless driver would you suggest to use/port? Did you manage to enable NPTL support in libc library for RTL SoCs?
Realtek released new chips - RTL8197F and RTL8198C (see wikidevi for more info).
Most interesting is RTL8197F (MIPS 24kc, 1GHz CPU, integrated ASIC with 100 Mbit/s ethernet ports or 1Gbit/s ethernet ports via external switch (e.g. RTL8367), integrated 2x2 2.4GHz WiFi, integrated RAM 64-128MB). It also has standard Realtek HW features (NAPT, ACL, QoS, Crypto, IPv6 routing), but it's usually not actual for OpenWrt.
As you can see, new chips has MIPS32R2 ISA. Unlike old Lexra-based Realtek devices it should not be a problem to compile a toolchain for RTL8197F. Theoretically it's possible to add this device to LEDE. But again the most hard part is network drivers (ethernet and wifi). I'm not sure that somebody wants to rewrite them from scratch.
You could find old RTK SDKs here: https://sourceforge.net/projects/rtl819x/files and review Realtek code.
This is interesting, though it appears that none of these chips are in a major-brand router yet. If they were it might be possible to examine their GPL code and see how open the drivers are.
The RAM is not integrated into the SoC, external DDR1 or DDR2 RAM chip(s) are still necessary.
RTL8197F uses the same SDK as other RTL819X family routers (linux kernel 3.10).
You can follow link from my previous post and download different RTK SDKs (but I don't know what their legal status).
You can also download GPL (e.g. I've found that D-Link DAP-1665 rev. B1 has RTL8197F chip and GPL for it is available).
Most interesting parts:
Ethernet driver - drivers/net/rtl819x
Wireless driver - drivers/net/wireless/rtl8192cd
All files are c sources. Some files have GPL-label. E.g. rtl_nic.c file has MODULE_LICENSE("GPL").
But some files have Realtek proprietary copyright instead. So it's not clear situation.
According to wikidevi (https://wikidevi.com/wiki/Realtek) there are many variants of RTL8197F:
RTL8197FB/RTL8197FH/RTL8197FS/RTL8197FN.
Some of them have embedded RAM (64-128MB) and some have external RAM.
Some of them use 5FE ports (embedded) and some connected via RGMII to external 1Gb/s Switch or external PHY.
Also according to wikidevi RTL8197F-based routers usually come with RTL8812BR (2x2 802.11AC WiFi chip with MU-MIMO support).
Here is ASUS RP-AC55 GPL tarball. And there are templates to add more Realtek SoCs in hackpascal's code. There are also GPL ethernet and WIFI drivers in his github repo. Somebody familiar has to just add support for newer SoCs.
Who are interested?
I would like to support older and often problematic devices. As an example I would introduce the NETIS routers.Of course, new devices.
hello , is this topic still valid and active?
I have manage to put openwrt (12.09 ) on netis 2411 and I am only missing wifi ( but they are compiled )
Any ?
Hi fabiobassa
I am interested in. I have enough realtek chips. I'm even able to replace the eprom for the larger one. I don't need LUCI. I write it because there may be a problem with little RAM. I do not throw away anything that could still serve.
hello @czjaromir ty so much for replaying.
really I'm not speaking of lede exactly, but about the old 12.09 , any way I would have a opinion exchanges about this poor routers.
Let me explain my scenario:
rom only 4 mega
ram only 16 mega but....
IS WORKING , even wifi is working.
Now I am only stuck on wpa enryption, the rest is ok.
what about you ? Just interested or have news to share?
Does it exist a way to chat or exchange opinions on this forum?
Regards, Fabio
Are you saying that you compiled the driver for OpenWrt 12.09?
Sure - just make a new topic/thread.
Also, per the Community Guidelines, please refrain from signing your posts.
@lleachii sure not me compiled the drivers for the router, I have not the skill to do it, lol just applied the existent and discovered the way to make it fit in 4 mega rom.
yes i will open a new thread to leave this to lede.
ty so much
Hi fabiobassa
I have simply email czjaromir@gmail.com. As a rule, I will receive an email when there is a post on this forum. My news? I'm looking for ways to implement OpenWrt where it's not yet. When this is done then I will complete the openwrt page. Everything is sometimes for the first time and also meaningful communication on my part in this forum. The English compiler helps me a lot. There's an analogy with the android. Which when he was at the beginning did not have such HW requirements. OpenWrt is developing as well. Still, I love to take an older unsupported hw and give it something that works. Where can I download your compilations to try. WPA is a problem with older wifi. I just use wep or not always encryption is desirable.
The Realtek SOC's (rtl8881a, rtl8196e, rtl819xd) support unaligned load and store opcodes (lwl, lwr, swl, swr) !
The Realtek SOC's (rtl8881a, rtl8196e, rtl819xd) are full MIPS. The instruction set is the same as the mips r3000 and not the r6000.
I checked the code of realtek SDK 2.5.
I think: The realtek bought lexra core, and when patent law expired (2006)
Realtek added four unaligned load and store opcode to the realtek soc.
Best Regards
There is a guy who ported RTL8186 in linux kernel and successfully able to boot it https://github.com/yashac3/linux-rtl8186 . RTL8186 doesn't support unaligned load and store opcodes (lwl, lwr, swl, swr). But RTL8196E does as u say and I have a RTL8196E device. I followed his steps like 1 year ago and try to do a port for my 8196E but it didn't worked, back then I didn't know that 8196E is a full MIPS. Do u want to check his port and continue ?